Ventura College Teachers Back Kemp Rally Protesters

A group of Latino faculty members at Ventura College are rising to the defense of a Fillmore High School teacher and students who face disciplinary action in connection with their attendance last month at a political rally, although school officials say that effort appears to be misguided and misinformed.

Members of La Raza Faculty Assn. scheduled a news conference today at the college to condemn what they call racist attacks leveled against Chicano studies teacher Joe Torres and a handful of students who attended a political rally for vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp.

Seven to 10 Fillmore High School students were suspended for failing to return to school when ordered to do so, school officials said. And Torres faces unspecified punishment for taking his class to the rally without authorization.

“There has been a public lynching of these students and this teacher,” said college professor Mayo de la Rocha. He is concerned that the students are being punished for exercising their 1st Amendment rights to protest at the event, and that Torres is being made a scapegoat in the controversy that arose during the noontime rally when protesters began to heckle the Kemps and shout “Chicano power!”

“They have been under a lot of attack,” De la Rocha said, “and we are basically coming together to show them support.”

School officials say those concerns miss the mark. The students were punished for defying authority and refusing to return to school, said Supt. Mario Contini.

Likewise, the action against the teacher, which at this point is only a recommendation, stems from failing to follow school policies. Contini said there is no evidence to suggest that Torres organized the protest.

“Contrary to what you might hear, we have not disciplined anybody for exercising their freedom of speech,” Contini said. “These are our students and it is our responsibility to teach our students how to behave and how to conduct themselves.”

The rally--which doubled as a birthday homecoming celebration for Kemp’s wife, Joanne, a Fillmore native--was to have been one of Fillmore’s finest moments.

With residents out in force, Jack and Joanne Kemp pulled into the city train station on a locomotive draped in red, white and blue.

About 1,000 Fillmore students were in attendance, along with about two dozen protesters. Skirmishes broke out, first between protesters and Kemp supporters and later between protesters and sheriff’s deputies mounted on horseback.

Three of the protesters--one of them a Fillmore High student--were cited by police and released.

Since then, in newspaper editorials and school board meetings, much has been made of the incident, which many believe soiled the city’s reputation as a folksy, friendly small town.

But for members of La Raza Faculty Assn., much of what has been said also has been wrapped in racial overtones. They are calling on organizations, such as the ACLU and the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, to investigate the matter.

“We’d like someone to review whether there were violations of the students’ rights,” said Ben Saiz, a Chicano studies teacher at Ventura College and a member of the Santa Paula elementary school board. “There are two sides to a story, and people have only heard one side. We’re looking to represent the other side.”

But school officials fear an investigation could do more harm than good, further fanning the flames of public anger.

Administrators plan to hold meetings soon so students can air their concerns and work toward understanding differences and getting along better.

“My hope is that we all come out of this better off than when we went in,” Contini said. “That means we’re going to go through a period where we’re worse off. But I think there’s something that we all can learn from this.”